Wednesday, January 29, 2014

I had an interaction with call rep of call center of one of the prominent DTH TV companies.

They asked me to punch:

a) Language Option

b) Existing or New Customer Option

c) If existing customer than punch - customer ID or Mobile Number (Which is 10 digit)

d) It will check number by repeating

e) Correction Option

f) Ad message of the company

g) Select Services option

After so many punches I have reached the call center representative.

When a customer calls a call center he wants to do some transaction/inquiry or solve the problem. Mainly when a company has circulated a call center number for a specific request, most calls would be of that services.

My worries & concerns were :

- Call drop in between and again I need to start from step 1

- Why I have to do so many punches to reach to call center representative?

- Is it necessary to market the services in between when I ave approached the company for specific services?

- Their SMS was about asking the subscribers to upgrade or else certain channel wont be available. There was no mention that it is free. So I was a bit concerned too , as how can they do so in between the contract?

How they could have improved the customer experience?

1) Their SMS should state that its is a free upgrade (Most of the discomfort would have been avoided before I called).

This kind of customer focus can not only shorten the time but improves customer experience substantially. Unfortunately most companies are process, IT and internal focused and hence create negative customer experience & reasons for customer frustration.

When was the last have you mapped the processes keeping customers in mind?

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Do you know how much effort it takes for the customers to deal
with you ? This is my classic ICICI Bank Credit Card /Call Center experience
during last 3 days.

I wanted to report about fraudulent transactions on my
credit card. There were 17 transactions in the time lag of 4 minutes. But it
took 50 minutes for me to report it to the bank.

There is neither emergency contact numbers not call center number on credit card bill so net connectivity is necessary to find their number from website. Even on website there is no separate emergency number. All matters are treated equally.

There is no proper & complete instructions
for emergency handling at cell center number punches. It took 50
minutes for me to reach them and report my
issues which incl long queues and
line disconnect in between the conversation.

Call center agent handling emergency has
no updated email ID where I have to send my written complaint. I was
given an out dated email ID, which was corrected by other agent
on the next day.

Agent handling card loss issues which they classify as emergency and given priority does not know how to deal with emergency. He has asked me to come through normal route after punching so many keys even without knowing my issues.

There is no system of acknowledgment for the written
complaint sent. I was told it will happen in 24 hours. I am in 26th
hour and still waiting. I am not sure whether they have received my written complaint which was
to be sent within 48 hours.

I have a feeling of pathetic ( fumbling at every possible instance ) , careless ( don't know which punches stand for what on call center punch menu ), negligent ( don't have updated email ID with emergency team ) , thoughtless ( don't print customer care or emergency number on 4 page long bill ) & frustration ( still awaiting for acknowledgement even after so much of communication and scaling up up to the level of MD ) about whole my ICICI bank experience.

The point I am trying to make is, many a times it takes
huge efforts of our customers to deal with our business. Do you
have any customer effort scorecard mechanism in place? Do you
periodically ask your customers feedback about experience and
efforts they have to put in while dealing with your business?

It is extremely important especially in
B2B scenario where per customer stakes are high. Don’t
just focus on sales, focus on customer experience your business creates , customer efforts it takes to deal with your business &
customer emotions your efforts invokes before/during & after sales.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

I was sold by call center executive of TATA AIG one medical insurance Policy. I was explained certain features and some of my queries were answered to my satisfaction. Hence I decided to go for it and issued cheque. Cheque was collected within 24 hrs by them.

As a part of their business process, to know whether policy was mis sold ,one more call came to explain me the features of policy. At this stage on seeking clarification , I found that one of the features were mis sold to me. Since that feature was critical , I decided not to go for the policy. I told the executive to stop the process and return me my cheque.

Next day again call center executive who first sold me the policy called me , I explained him the issue, he was not sure about the same therefore his senior spoke to me. Tried to explain me but cud not satisfy me. I told him to return my cheque.

There after in next 3 days cpl of executives tried to convince me but failed , to all of them I told to return my cheque. They promised to do so. However fact of the matter is today even after 2 weeks , I am still awaiting my cheque.

They collected in 24 hours and couldn't return for 14 days when I want to withdraw, that too at their fault of mis selling.

I wonder why companies do not handle this situation gracefully? Companies have their refund policy and fixed time for refunds. When they want to sale they are open 24 X 7 but for customer who wants refund and return they have policy , rules & absolute apathy !!!

Here I wud like to mention about zappos.com return policy of NO questions asked. When companies learn and understand that this is also a kind of experience and most powerful way to get back the out going customer.

There r very few companies who are graceful to attend to customer refund and return issues. Out there in the market everyone wants to sale but those who can accept return gracefully is the company awaken to customers' 360* need & Thats the winner!!!.Very very few will pass this test. Everyone want to sale but very very few wants to solve customer problem.